Moon is not Earth`s only natural satellite
Baku, April 9 (AZERTAC).The Earth constantly captures small objects from (to) the NEO population and scientists construct a steady-state model of the Earth`s temporary satellites.
According to their studies, at any given time there is at least one one-meter-diameter object orbiting the Earth and the average satellite makes about 3 revolutions around the Earth in 9 months.
Their results agree with Earth`s single verified temporary satellite known to date.
Earth usually has more than one moon, according to a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii at Ma-noa, the University of Helsinki, and the Paris Observatory.
The 2,000-mile-diameter Moon, so beloved by poets, artists and romantics, has been orbiting Earth for over 4 billion years.
Its much smaller cousins, dubbed “minimoons,” are thought to be only a few feet across and to usually orbit our planet for less than a year before resuming their previous lives as asteroids orbiting the Sun.
Mikael Granvik (formerly of UH Ma-noa and now at the University of Helsinki), Jeremie Vaubaillon (Paris Observatory) and Robert Jedicke (UH Ma-noa) calculated the probability that at any given time Earth has more than one moon.
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